Shaquita Smith, best known for her roles in AMC’s Wicked City and BET+’s My Valentine Crush, is set to produce and star in the upcoming indie action-adventure film Voyage of the Forgotten.

Academy Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor has completed filming Liz Here Now, a new indie drama directed by Sterling Macer Jr. Set in 1967, the film follows Liz Baxter (Ellis-Taylor), a nanny for a white family in Oakland, California, during the rise of the Black Panther Party. When Liz discovers the children she cares for are being mistreated by their mother (played by Twilight's Rachelle Lefevre), her efforts to protect them lead to accusations of involvement in a Black Panther conspiracy.

Tamera “Tee” Kissen, best known for her roles in White Men Can’t Jump and House Party, has signed on to lead the cast of the upcoming vampire horror film Fanged.